Friday, March 21, 2008

Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - WENN - 21 March 2008: "Lindsay Lohan is at the center of a sex tape scandal - after footage emerged allegedly showing the actress performing a sex act on Irish model Calum Best. The 21-year-old Just My Luck star dated the son of British soccer legend George Best last year, and, according to British tabloid The Sun, the video was leaked on the internet after Calum sent the clip to 'close friends.' Representatives for both Lohan and Best have refused to confirm or deny the existence of the tape."

Comcast Cameras to Start Watching You? � NewTeeVee: "If you have some tinfoil handy, now might be a good time to fashion a hat. At the Digital Living Room conference today, Gerard Kunkel, Comcast’s senior VP of user experience, told me the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who’s in your living room.

The idea being that if you turn on your cable box, it recognizes you and pulls up shows already in your profile or makes recommendations. If parents are watching TV with their children, for example, parental controls could appear to block certain content from appearing on the screen. Kunkel also said this type of monitoring is the “holy grail” because it could help serve up specifically tailored ads. Yikes."

I've enjoyed the two earlier books in this series (see here and here) about Big Red and Old Red, the Amlingmeyer brothers, as well as the occasional story about them in EQMM (in fact, the latest story in the magazine shares the San Francisco setting of this novel and is briefly alluded to in Big Red's narration). This time the boys find themselves in Chinatown, with Gustav (Old Red) still applying the methods of Sherlock Holmes, this time to a supposed suicide that's actually a murder. (Some of the characters, including the murder victim, appeared in the previous book in the series, but you don't have to have read that one to enjoy this one. Trust me.)

Before long, the Reds are up to their necks in trouble as they try to find the elusive Black Dove while being pursued by various hatchet men, the cops, vengeful madams, crime bosses, and such. Both Reds are a bit distracted by the presence of the lovely Diana Corvus, who's sure to return in future books, and we find out a bit more about the background of Old Red, who's been harboring a secret for a long time. Check it out.

Finalists for the 2008 Thriller Awards! - The Big Thrill: "After much arduous and painstaking labor by our three panels of esteemed judges--overseen and orchestrated by this year's Award Chair, the talented Vicki Hinze--the nominees for this year's 'Thriller' awards have been selected."

In Texas, that all depends on a legal battle between medical doctors and podiatrists, who both claim the ankle as their turf. The debate has raged to the point that the two sides disagree in court on whether the ankle actually exists.

A state appeals court recently sided with medical doctors when it determined that the state board that licenses podiatrists exceeded its authority in defining the ankle as part of the foot.

'You don't have an ankle,' said Mark Hanna, a lawyer for the Texas Podiatric Medical Association. 'The foot actually includes the ankle. If you took the foot off the leg, there is nothing lying there that's the ankle.'"

Having read and enjoyed The Cold Spot, I thought I'd give this one a try. It's a nice homage to the old Gold Medal novels (note the pre-stressed cover) but with a contemporary sensibility. A man named Crease returns to his hometown ten years after his father's death. He's obsessed with the kidnapping of a young girl, killed by his father at the ransom site. He's also being pursued by a drug dealer whose sweetie Crease has impregnated during the time that Crease has been working as an undercover narc. A further complication is that Chase is married and has a son, and he's adopted his sister-in-law's five or six kids.

As it turns out, nothing in the old hometown is what it seems or at least what Crease thought it would be. Crease begins to question his own motives and in fact his whole life. All this zips along in a tidy 184 pages.

Chase and Crease. Does Piccirilli have a thing about guys with one-word names that begin with the letter C? And what about these issues with fathers and sons, a strong theme in both books I've read. I guess I'll have to read more to see how this plays out.

After receiving a tip several weeks ago, TABC agents raided Bayou Bob’s Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch in Palo Pinto County after the reptile-infused vodka was sold to undercover agents, the paper reported. 411 bottles of the serpent sauce were seized.

“In my 20 years with the TABC, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sgt. Charlie Cloud told the Star-Telegram."

Welcome to Book Obsessed, a mini-documentary series that travels the length and breadth of the USA to meet folks whose love for books knows no bounds! From New York to LA, from Texas to Wisconsin, our intrepid crew tracks down obsessed readers and spends time with them, revealing a fascinating glimpse into their world and the books they love. Each week, you’ll meet a new bibliophile who is truly Book Obsessed."

Some of the structures hidden in a forest of eucalyptus trees predate the Inca empire but were then significantly developed and expanded, with a roadway and irrigation, says a team from Peru's National Institute of Culture.

Archaeologists were lucky to find the ruins at all, as part of the structure was destroyed by dynamite blasts in the early 20th century, when the site was used as a stone quarry.

The ruins lie in the Archaeological Park of Sacsayhuaman, north of Cusco city, a 3,000 hectare site that is home to many Inca monuments, notably Sacsayhuaman ('satisfied hawk' in Quechua, the Inca language), Qenqo, a shrine on a hilltop where maize beer was stored for rituals, Puca Pucar, the 'red fortress', and Tambomachay, home of a water cult."

Toe Reading Online: "Toe Reading is based on the theory that your body holographically records the story of your life. The position and shape of the toes say a lot about their owner. By observing someone's toes you will know a great deal about their past and the experiences they have lived through. Toes reveal how a person copes with their feelings, as well as their thoughts. It has now been documented that everything that happens in your life, the story and the emotions, are stored as cell memory. There is more going on in the world, and specifically YOUR world, than meets the eye. And, it may just be your toes that reveal the most."

2 elderly women on trial in murder plot - Yahoo! News: "LOS ANGELES - Two elderly women accused of killing two transient men with a car so they could collect nearly $3 million in insurance money were videotaped talking about the scheme while in FBI custody, the prosecutor said in opening statements Tuesday.

'It's your fault,' Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, told co-defendant Helen Golay, 77, in the tape played for the jury. 'You can't have that many insurers. ... You were greedy. That's the problem.'"

Star Industries CEO Martin Silver, who owns U.S. rights to the brand, told Ad Age his firm is making headway in talks to pay Ashley Dupre a low six-figure amount to be this year's Georgi 'butt girl,' the annual pinup the brand posts on the backs of city buses and the tops of taxicabs.

'The girls' butt we have on there now is pretty good, but if you can get [Dupre] to do it, and to make some personal appearances, it's like Paris Hilton or something,' said Mr. Silver. 'We are trying to work out a contract,' he added."

This is a pdf file, so be warned. I 've read a heck of a lot of the books represented, but the coolest thing to me is that #16 is from a book translated by one of my former students, a kid I gave a copy of Tom Robbins' Another Roadside Attraction, which blew his mind. It was a long time ago.

growabrain: Why is FreeCell so popular?: "FreeCell is a solitaire 52-card game with “no stunning graphics, no sound and a workmanlike game engine”. But for sheer addictive compulsion and appeal, it deserves a place in the hall of fame."

At least 12 people were arrested and one officer broke his finger Sunday trying to control the crowd, Galveston police Lt. Jorge Trevino said. Almost four hours passed before police cleared the streets."

Judy, in spite of her mild exterior, likes serial killer movies. She'd wanted to see Mr. Brooks in the theater, but we missed it. Today we caught it on DVD, and we both liked it.

Kevin Costner plays the title character, the Businessman of the Year in Portland, who also happens to be the Thumbprint Killer. He has an alter ego, Marshal, played by William Hurt. Costner and Marshal do a fine job and have great conversations. Costner also has a beautiful wife, a daughter who's dropped out of college and is pregnant. He's being hunted by a cop played by Demi Moore (and she's very good), who's quite wealthy (worth $60 million) and who's involved in a messy divorce. She's also being pursued by an escaped serial killer known as the Hangman. On his last job, Costner was seen and photographed by "Mr. Smith," played very well by Dane Cook, who's decided that he wants to be an apprentice serial killer. And, finally, Costner has a leaky kitchen sink that defies the local plumber.

Okay, I made that last one up, but everything else I said is in the movie, and there's even more than that. But I didn't want to spoil everything for you. The movie didn't do well at the box office, so I suppose we'll never get the promised sequel. Dang.

A proposal by MP Tommy Tabermann (SDP) to grant all employees a paid 7-day 'love vacation' once a year led to an exceptionally colourful debate in Parliament on Thursday evening.

Mostly those MPs who had signed the proposal took part in the debate, but also others regarded the idea as recommendable.

According to Tabermann, the purpose of such vacations would be to prevent relations from disintegrating and the spouses from drifting apart.

During the seven days, couples could devote themselves to each other ”both at an erotic and emotional level” and ”find their way back to the path of love in order to find the wellspring of love again”.

Some MPs suspected that the proposal might discriminate against single persons, but others said that a love vacation would be the privilege of all, even the singles and the single parents."

The coca leaf, the raw ingredient of cocaine, is used by millions of people to stave off hunger and fight altitude sickness. It is also used in teas, in cooking and by fortune tellers.

'The coca leaf has existed for thousands and thousands of years. It's part of our agriculture, our food and our medicine. It's sacred,' Congresswoman Hilaria Supa told Reuters before the start of Thursday's session."

From Prince Harry in Afghanistan to Tom Cruise ranting about Scientology and footage from the Burmese uprising, blogging has never been bigger. It can help elect presidents and take down attorney generals while simultaneously celebrating the minutiae of our everyday obsessions. Here are the 50 best reasons to log on."

Photo of Maximo, the largest croc at the gator park, can be found at the link.

Oh My! | TheLedger.com: "It's pretty easy to find an alligator in these parts. The reptile associated with Florida is not difficult to locate. For a real education about the animal, a trip to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park is a good source.

Nothing in St. Augustine goes without history, and the park has its own. In fact, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was founded in 1893 and is considered one of Florida's oldest attractions."

I like Jonathan Craig's Gold Medal series about Pete Selby quite a bit. It was Craig's try at capturing the magic of Dragnet in novel form, and I thought it worked pretty well. Most, if not all, the books in the series were later reprinted by Belmont/Tower, but for some reason I didn't buy the reprints. I always thought Craig write these with a copy of Psychopathia Sexualis open beside him on the desk.

Alley Girl was written before the Selby series, and it was later reprinted by Berkley as Renegade Cop, a title that's much more descriptive of the contents. Maybe Lion Books was trying to cash in on the "Girl" titles so popular with Gold Medal writer Charles Williams, who'd already published Hill Girl, Big City Girl, and River Girl by the time Alley Girl appeared. Anyway, Alley Girl is a hardboiled noir story about Steve Lambert, a renegade cop. You think those guys on The Badge are tough and corrupt? You should read about Lambert. He makes them look like wussies. He's got a guy in jail as a material witness, when someone offers him $5000 to get the guy convicted. He's happy to do it, but he wants $20,000. He's also banging the guy's wife, who submits in the hope that he'll get her husband freed. And those things are just the start. Lambert is one bad dude.

Craig takes pains to show that not all cops are like Lambert, but of course Lambert's the interesting one. Craig also had his copy of Psychopathia Sexualis open when he was writing this one. There's some kinky stuff, along with some very '50s attitudes that are now very unPC. Don't say I didn't warn you.

In honor of Craig, I've posted a slideshow of covers over on the right. Or I will post it when Slide starts working again. There seems to be a glitch at the moment.